Australia came up with a dominating performance in the second T20 International against India and won the game by eight wickets to level the series. It was a match in which Australia showed domination, something which was missing from their side in the previous ODI series and the first T20I in Ranchi.

Jason Behrendroff took four wickets after captain David Warner won the toss and elected to bowl on a damp wicket in Guwahati. India were skittled out for 118 in 20 overs. Australia too had a bad start as they lost Warner and Aaron Finch early but India failed to pick wickets in the middle over and Australia seized the momentum. The spinners failed to consolidate on the pressure built by the bowlers early on. India fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar emphasised that to win matches, wickets in the middle overs are crucial.

“It was a tough wicket for batting. Rain was around, it was a damp. So you know, Australian bowlers made the most of the wicket. We tried our best to take initial wickets,” Bhuvneshwar said. “If you have to win the match, you have to keep taking wickets especially in the middle overs which we couldn’t do. I would say they bowled better than us.”

India were rocked in the first over itself. Behrendroff was on fire as he first got the wicket of Rohit Sharma and followed it up with the Virat Kohli two balls later. By the time he finished with figures of 4 for 21 as he took wickets of Manish Pandey and Shikhar Dhawan in his next two overs.

India were pushed back after the initial wickets and could never recover. Bhuvneshwar said that pointing a finger at someone wonn’t be right as it was just an off day for us. He added that Behrendroff bowled well, making full use of the wicket.

“I think we tried to rebuild it again. But we couldn’t do it. We can’t really point a finger on someone and say it was their fault. It was just an off day for us,” said Bhuvneshwar. “He (Behrendorff) bowled really well. He made full use of the wicket. It was the perfect kind of wicket for the line and length he bowled. You need to be bit fortunate to get three or four wickets in the T20s. Rohit Sharma’s wicket and Kohli’s wicket were the crucial point for us, in the first over itself.”